


Indigo to Grey

by sugarfr0g



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR but the AI is sentient
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Autistic Tommy, Benrey has... emotions?, Comfort, Gen, Healthy Coping, Just a whole lotta good vibes, Panic Attacks, Takes place around Act 2, dunno when, lullaby, more at 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24837493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarfr0g/pseuds/sugarfr0g
Summary: Tommy wakes up from a nightmare expecting Sunkist to be there to comfort him. Instead, he's in Black Mesa, and everyone else is asleep. Luckily, Benrey just happened to be nearby.
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta
Comments: 3
Kudos: 105





	Indigo to Grey

When Tommy woke up from his nightmare, it felt like his heart was outside of his chest. 

Waking up in an unfamiliar place was bad enough- pair that with the obnoxious buzzing and glaring of the LEDS above him and the adrenaline (or whatever the half-interdimensional-alien equivalent was) running through his body, and he was in a whole lot of discomfort. Usually when he woke up from terrors, he had Sunkist there immediately. It was easier to come back down from the panic when he could run his fingers through her fur or something. But Sunkist was at home. And he was here. 

As soon as he could fixate on something that wasn't the floor, he looked around. Dr. Freeman was curled up in fetal position on the opposite end of the room, muttering something about passports in his sleep. Dr. Coomer was propped up against the wall, snoring quite loudly. Dr. Bubby, on the other hand, was leaned on Dr. Coomer's shoulder in what had to be an uncomfortable position. Tommy considered, for a moment, waking one of them up. But- no. He could deal with this right? Yeah. Yeah. 

He wrapped his arms around himself. He couldn't deal with this.

He almost felt stupid- he could hardly remember what had gotten him so worked up. The only thing he could recollect from his nightmare was a flash of bright green light and someone screaming- maybe him. Just thinking about it made his breathing pick up again, faster and faster, and--

"y' good, dude?"

Tommy nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice. Weird enough, it was Coomer or Bubby or Dr. Freeman, it was Benrey. The security guard was leaned in the doorway to the room they had decided to call camp for the night. They hadn't seen Benrey for a good twelve hours, so Tommy was, of course, shocked.

"Yeah," Tommy swallowed. "I had a nightmare."

Benrey seemed a little shocked at Tommy candidness. But what else was he supposed to do, lie?

"that sounds kinda cringe."

"Yeah." 

The two sat in silence for a moment, Tommy trying to self-sooth by rubbing a pattern into the palm of his hand.

"you uh," Benrey made a clicking noise with his lips. "you wanna talk about it?"

To say that Tommy and Benrey were friends was neither an over or understatement- prior to the Resonance Cascade, they'd played Smash a couple times at Tommy's apartment. They'd gone to McDonalds occasionally. All of that in mind, Tommy was still sort of shocked than Benrey was going out of his way to be so nice.

"No. I can't re- I can't remember it very good," Tommy admitted. In the time he spoke that sentence, Benrey had walked from the doorway to where Tommy was sitting. "I'm still scared, though."

"anything i can do? not that i give a shit, it's just, if you're tired in the morning nobody'll be there to annoy feetman for me."

Tommy laughed, a breathy sound, because he could tell Benrey cared. He wouldn't be sitting with him if he didn't. He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, thinking if there was anything that Benrey could do to help. Suddenly, it came to him.

"Could you sing me a lullaby?"

If Benrey was shocked by his request, it wasn't apparent. "yeah, ok. lemme warm up first."

Content with his request being fulled, Tommy adjusted himself to a more comfortable position to sleep it. Benrey began to sing. It was gentle, unlike most of the times he had witnessed him use the Sweet Voice (TM). Also unlike most times, the pitch seemed to change at a consistent rate, almost like an actual song. Tommy's eyes began to to droop. Just as he was falling back into a deep sleep, he noticed the colors of the orbs Benrey was spitting out.

"Indigo to grey means-"

"you don't have to say it outloud, feetman isn't even awake to hear."

Tommy supposed that was true. He listened to the Sweet Voice (TM) for a couple moments more before the panic subsided and he finally fell back asleep.

As soon as he was sure Tommy was unconscious, Benrey stood up and made his way out of the room. Tommy hadn't translated it verbally, but Benrey remembered what it meant.

Indigo to grey means you're okay.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this. i wrote this while recovering from a panic attack the summary of a certain fic gave me. hope you guys enjoy!


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